Untitled - Africa Centre for Open Governance

5. The Year Ahead
Some progress was made in the year 2011 in the establishment of laws, policies, institutions and
practices that have the potential to significantly improve governance in Kenya, but the war against
corruption is far from won.
The gains made in the implementation of the new constitution must be jealously safeguarded.
Although the new constitution establishes principles and mechanisms that may enhance
government accountability, there is need to further align the statutory order with its values and
principles if abuse of power and corruption are to be curbed.
The positive changes that have manifested themselves in terms of transformation of the Judiciary
and those that are set to be rolled out to reform the Police Service offer grounds for hope. However,
the Judiciary and the Police Service, in providing services need to show that they are committed
to positive change and that they are independent and ethical. This will provide Kenyans with the
zeal to continue to be vigilant in following up the reforms processes aimed at achieving well and
fully functioning Judicial and Police Service systems. During the year, the Judiciary performed
much better on this score than the Police.
2012 poses some challenges that Kenyans need to be wary of. First, in anticipation of the elections,
the demands for campaign financing create strong incentives for those in positions of power to
dip into public coffers. Secondly, in line with the new demands for those seeking public office,
there will be need for vigilance to ensure that all the myriad candidates undergo some transparent,
hopefully rigorous, vetting process to test their eligibility to hold public office. In addition, with
regard to preparation for elections, the IEBC has a heavy task ahead of it; there is hope that the
reform in the Judiciary will enable faster resolution of the legal disputes arising from the delineation
of boundaries done by the IEBC. Only if this is done, and if sufficient funds are allocated through
the national budget, can the IEBC continue to effectively prepare for elections. It is worth noting,
though, that the work of the IEBC continues to be marred by attempts to politically influence
IEBC’s decisions and even call into question the election date supported by the IEBC.
It will also be the year during which the groundwork for county government structures will start
to be laid out. The country’s history with the management of decentralized funds such as the
CDF provides cause for concern with reports from the National Taxpayers Association revealing
that large amounts of CDF funds are, with each financial year, increasingly being misappropriated
at local levels of government. Local authorities, for example, are widely viewed as corrupt and
inept and face challenges such as weak oversight; poor planning and the non-existence of
monitoring and evaluation frameworks 89 , all of which provide ground upon which corruption
and misappropriation of devolved funds can occur. The question therefore is: - will corruption
be devolved from the centre along with the Government The economic burden that must be
shouldered so as to facilitate the working of the new expanded bureaucracy cannot be ignored.
Indeed, it poses a further governance risk in the year ahead.
89 Allan Odhiambo, “Poor Management and Corruption Threaten Future of Devolved Funds,” http://www.nta.or.ke/
mediamentions/Allan_Odhiambo_Analysis_On_CDF.pdf (2010)
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